John Poe, bugler for the Beaches Honor Guard, plays taps after the rifle squad gun salute on Sunday.

Wearing his Navy dress uniform, veteran Nick Patrizio stood at rapt attention, his hand in salute mode at his forehead, when the national anthem was sung, the rifle squad shot a salute and taps was played.

With 98 years of life and 40 years in the Navy under his belt, the retired master chief has seen many a Veterans Day ceremony.

They carry great meaning for him and always bring a year to his eyes.

“This is great,” he said, after a Sunday program at the Beaches Veterans Memorial Park in Atlantic Beach. “When the taps is played, it kills me.”

Patrizio, who lives in Ponte Vedra Beach, was one of the special guests at the event hosted by American Legion Post 316. He served in the Navy from 1933 to 1973, with stints on a destroyer, a carrier and a minesweeper, he said.

Fellow veterans and military families treated him like a rock star. That’s how all veterans should be treated, said Capt. Douglas Cochrane, commander at Mayport Naval Station, one of the speakers at the event.

Cochrane, who joined the Navy in 1986, served his third deployment as part of Desert Storm. He said returning veterans from that time were greeted by the public with “unabashed joy.” Vietnam-era war veterans received no such warmth, but he said he hoped they have each received proper recognition since.

“You deserved it. You earned it,” he said.

Active military and veterans should be continually recognized for their service to the country and their communities — at home and away, he said — and the sacrifices made by them and their families.

“They are the very, very best of America. They continue to give and give,” Cochrane said.

The country must do the same for them, said U.S. Rep. Ander Crenshaw, R-Fla., who was the keynote speaker. A member of Congress since 2001, Crenshaw is a member of the House appropriations committee and the defense appropriations subcommittee. And growing up in Jacksonville, he enjoyed watching military planes take off and ships come and go.

“We do have a special relationship with the military. I don’t think a single community … does more for the men and women in uniform,” Crenshaw said.

He cited ongoing veterans support programs run by the city and UNF, the Allied Veterans Center for the homeless in Jacksonville and the recent city-sponsored Week of Valor, which included a job fair for veterans. In addition, the federal government has established a veterans cemetery in Jacksonville and plans to open a clinic for veterans in the city.

“We still have a long way to go,” Crenshaw said, “but we are taking some giant steps.”